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What was the first thing to jump into your mind this morning? Were you excited, passionate? Did you feel awake, alert and energised? Were you motivated to eat good food, to exercise, to be productive and work towards your goals and dreams?

As the sequel to one of the most popular blog posts yet; https://lifeofeden.com/2014/09/30/manifest-monday-what-drives-you/ , this is your guide to boost your motivation each and everyday!

Passion is the drive but motivation is the fuel. How do we get more of this? Fueling ourselves with wholefoods is what will power us with energy and the right mindset, meditation is what will provide clarity and creativity, and an active lifestyle is what will drive us to productivity, but where does this motivation come from? Brendon Burchard made the perfect analogy of an energy power plant that doesn’t have energy, it generates energy. Motivation is already there for you, it’s not something one day you have or don’t have, it is something to be generated at any time, in any place. After all, holistic health is about reaching our full potential in all aspects of our life. To be passionate, to excel, exceed, expand, THIS is what I call thriving and whether you need the motivation to fuel your health, or your relationships or your business, these are my top 5 keys to kick-start a life of motivation right now!

Just as breakfast is fuel for the day ahead, what we feed our minds each and every morning matters. Let these three exercises be the first thing you do the moment you wake up. By doing these every single day, you will start to rewire the programming of the brain so that a motivated mindset becomes your default mindset.

Gratitude is what has been coined; “intrinsically self-esteeming.” People with gratitude have been shown to be more proactive in attaining personal goals and this trait has been proven to help athletes reach optimal performance. It has also been shown that grateful individuals have less incidents of illness, reduced risk of depression and have a greater sence of wellbeing, all of which are necessary to carry out our motivation.

Prescription for wellness; grab a gratitude journal, keep it by your bed and write three things you are grateful for each day this week.

2) Ask: what am I excited for?

Passion is the driver of ambition and ambition, the fuel of motivation. If you want to feel motivated, awake, alert and alive, give yourself something to be excited about! When we are excited, we experience a natural high and will feel instantly energised and motivated to do something. Energy stems more from thought than anything else and you can see last Monday’s post to master your mind.

Prescription for wellness: Every morning ask yourself; what am I excited for today? It doesn’t matter whether it is something big or small, as long as you truly feel excited, you are fueling your day!

3) Mantras

What is it that you want? From yourself? From life? Write it down. Let’s take motivation. Want more? Write down something like “I am fueled each and every day with motivation. I am thrilled to wake up each morning and get going.” It doesn’t matter what you say or how you say it as long as you believe it. Whatever works for you, write it as though it’s yours and repeat this every morning and every night.

What this does; we are largely what beliefs we hold in our lives. Start paying attention to how you respond in everyday situations and you will see this. Often times we are on autopilot and responding from a place of repetition. What mantras do is change our subconscious programing. So; if you typically wake each day feeling unmotivated, this mantra will help induce feelings of motivation and the more you do this, the stronger the reprogramming in your brain until it becomes habit to wake up motivated and energised! Pretty powerful stuff.

Wellness weekly;

For this week’s wellness weekly challenge, I want you to give this a shot! Whether you are manifesting motivation for health and wellness, business, relationships or whatever it might be, use these three tips each and every morning to jump-start your day on an energized high (no caffeine kick needed). You’re going to love this one!

As one year closes, another year opens as the sky explodes above and the path unfolds below. With family & food & stretches of highway with Matthew Good, with windy countryside and tossled manes, with health and ease and flow.

~*~

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

May we laugh along with life, may we let go and let life flow, may we believe in the good things coming. May we set out and explore, live like a fool, laugh like a madman and make it a damn good adventure ✨ may we L I V E you 2015

In a flurry of hiking and christmas baking, it appears I missed yesterday’s post! But Tuesday is as good as any, isn’t it? As December is now upon us, christmas has officially consumed every waking moment of my day (and kitchen). I adore it! But somewhere amid the whirl of turkeys and tinsel, it becomes easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. As the Grinch once wisely stated “Maybe christmas (he thought) doesn’t come from a store, maybe christmas, perhaps! Means a little bit more.” These next posts are to inspire the enchanted child within us and disentangle the jumble of shiny decorations and purchaseable presents to unwrap the genuine meaning of Christmas.

A Classic Christmas Carol

In search of the true spirit of Christmas, we look to a different sort of spirit entirely, a ghostly spirit if you will. The sort of spirit that I revisit every year as I luxuriate in the magical world of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” and the humbug of Ebenezer Scrooge. The 1951 black and white film starring Alastair Sim being my personal favourite of the renditions of this holiday classic.

Whether this is completely new to you or you have heard this idea before, take a moment, right now, to consider that this very moment is the only one you have and will ever have. Really think about this, let it sink in a second. The past is over, done, finito, the future has not arrived, but where you are this second, that is all there is. This is all that truly matters. A favourite quote of mine from another round bellied fellow this holiday: Gautama Buddha: “Each day, we are born again.” In truth, we are reborn in each moment, awakened to another chance, another opportunity. There is no need to wait for another tomorrow to transform yourself, you have a new beginning with each and every breath.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

What shackles you? What event or person are you chaining to yourself in your thoughts and beliefs? Mental baggage is heavy. You are not Santa, drop the hefty load slug over your shoulder and feel how light you become. Everyone deserves forgiveness, including yourself. Forgiveness does not mean that you wish to keep the person close to you or need to be in contact with them. It does not mean you condone their behaviour. Forgiveness is about releasing our metaphorical shackles. Accepting that what happened has past, moving forward, setting ourselves free of unnecessary rumination on past events and moving into the present. A true gift indeed.

This week’s challenge:

Unwrap the gift of forgiveness this Christmas. This week, choose someone to forgive. Perhaps a friend, a family member, a past bully, or perhaps yourself. In forgiving, we allow the past to remain the past, we accept that it no longer exists, and by doing so, it will no longer control us. If a thought or belief does not serve you, it does not deserve you.

My personal favourite way to forgive? By understanding that every person and circumstance comes into our lives for a purpose. They have a lesson for us, a teaching. These people and circumstances are here to serve you. Some of the teachings I have received in life have seemed rather harsh and unforgivable, but when I came to see the value in even the darkest relationships I have had with others, I’ve come to see that they were a blessing. In the end, they were all a blessing. Forgiveness is the true light of heart. The true light of Christmas.

One of the single, most powerful ways to revolutionize your health; mind, body and spirit? Meditation! It’s free, it’s always accessible to you and you need nothing more than, well, you! There is no need for a witch’s ruby slippers, your somewhere over the rainbow is right here. Simply come to lotus and repeat: “there’s no place like om, there’s no place like om, there’s no place like om”

From reduced anxiety to increased happiness, we’ve all heard the benefits of meditation, but here is a round up of my favourite great and powerful reasons to get meditating every single day:

1. The fountain of youth

Meditation has been shown to increase the length of your telomeres (the “caps” at the ends of your chromosomes) which slows aging and is a strong indicator of longevity. This occurs by way of your increased ability to manage stress and encourages feelings of well being which in turn promotes the health of your telomeres to lengthen them. No munchkin telomeres here!

2. More effective than Morphine

Meditation has been found to be more effective than morphine, a drug that is toxic and harmful to the body, by reducing pain by up to 50%!

3. Better for children with ADHD than amphetamines

This is according to a 2011 report in the Mind and Brain – The Journal of Psychiatry here:

No need to be whisked away in a tornado and thrown into Oz to gain some perspective, meditation does this without the motion sickness. It shifts our thoughts from worry and negativity to relaxation and positivity. It helps us to shift into focussing on all of the good that happens through the day instead of ruminating on negative and what’s more? This can manifest more good into our lives and boost our overall feelings of well being.

10. The gateway to lucid dreaming – “and you, and you, and you were there!”

Becoming more aware through your waking state will increase your ability to become aware when dreaming.

11. Laugh the day away! (in the merry old land of Oz)

Become light hearted both literally and figuratively. On a literal level, meditation has been shown to increase cardiovascular health and decrease cholesterol levels to potentially reduce arterial plaque.

Figuratively, meditation helps you to see that nothing in life is so serious and suddenly you’re laughing at life’s curve balls and being unaffected by the things that may once have caused a reaction in you. (Sorry siblings, you’ll have to try a little harder.)

12. Food-free anti-inflammatory diet

Meditation is a powerful way to reduce inflammation in the body and create an internal alkaline state to promote overall health, the same things we aim to do with our diets.

13. Become a social butterfly

Meditators tend to have the qualities that draw others to them and has been shown to increase social connections. Why? They are likely to be happier, more empathetic, compassionate and energised.

14. It makes your brain plastic! (and not in a BPA kind of way)

This is all thanks to a little somthing called neuroplasticity; the brain’s ability to structurally and functionally change to adapt to its environment and daily meditation will help your brain to do this!

15. Your Grey Matters

Long term meditation has been shown to increase grey matter density in our brains and why does this matter? It is associated with increased learning, memory and attention.

17. If I only had a brain, a heart, a home, some courage…

What did lion, scarecrow, Dorothy, and tinman all have in common? All they were searching for, they already had. When manifesting your life’s desire, meditation will help bring you to everything you are seeking by showing you that you already have it. Health and wellness? It’s yours! Reduced stress, inner peace, happiness? Learn to steady your mind and calm your body, because there is simply no place like om.

The no place like OM challenge

For the month of November, starting TONIGHT, let’s meditate every. single. day! Get out your calander, buy some stickers or draw a picture every day as soon as you have done it. Whether it is 5 minutes, 20, an hour, every om counts!

Where to begin

We’re welcoming Oprah and Deepak Choprah into our homes and our OMs this month as they guide us through another 21 day meditation series and guess what? This one is centered around manifesting your life’s desires. It could not be a more seamless way to glide from last month’s theme into this one. It’s free and one of my favourite ways to begin meditating. Who better to help you jump start this month’s challenge?

Everyone has a purpose in life… a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.

– Deepak Chopra

Are you living passionately or passively?

We’ve started to ignite our passion to reconnect with what drives our day, but where are we driving to? What is your purpose in life? Have you found it, given up on it, chosen the path you thought you should take instead? This post is for you!

Psychology Today estimates that we will spend an average of 90,000 hours of our lifetime working (without taking into account the work we now bring home with us via technology). That’s 3750 days, 535 weeks and that’s a whole lot of time to spend doing something, so why spend it doing something we don’t love?!

~ * ~

Before choosing this path, I was well on the cozy road to becoming a therapist when suddenly it hit me: I didn’t want to be a therapist. I was passionate about therapy, but it wasn’t entirely my purpose. So how did I go from there to fast tracking my degree and enrolling for Holistic Nutrition, a field I didn’t even know existed at the time? It all began with passion, a little patience and a lot of trial and error and from here came my road map directions to help guide you on your path to living in purpose!

1) From Passion to Purpose

Building a foundation of passion is the foundation of purpose. The things we love to do will bring out the best in us, cause us to exude excitement, which makes us creative, confident and gives us an intoxicating energy that will seduce others to share in our purpose. This is the purpose of purpose after all!

Ask yourself: If I could do anything for the rest of my life and get paid for it, what would it be?

2) Be an Explorer, a Seeker

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

-Zig Ziglar

Don’t wait for purpose to come to you, explore it, seek it, find it! Be mindful and observant of what you might like to do and always ask yourself if what you are doing is fulfilling you. If not, keep searching.

3) Create your Dream Job

“Your dream job doesn’t exist, you have to create it.”

–Mahatma Gandhi

It was when I was sitting, thinking how I would love to study nutrition but didn’t agree with the conventional views that I had a thought: “what if there were alternative nutrition schools out there?” From this question, my career has taken all of my past career ambitions and morphed them into one: teacher, therapist, yoga instructor, chef, and of course, nutritionist, but you have to create it!

4) Ask!

Ask the universe for assistance in finding it. Trust me, this works! Ask for help, ask with intention, and help will show up. Don’t believe me? Try it! Here’s how: find a quiet spot and sit in a comfortable position. Begin by expressing out loud what you are grateful for. Then say that there is something you would like help with and state firmly and clearly what it is. Who are you addressing? The universe, god, spirit… it doesn’t matter what name we put to it, you are merely reaching out and asking for help. In one way or another, the answer will start to appear. This is the beginning of the understanding that our creations come not from outside of us, but from within us by what we hold in our minds and what we ask for.

5) When Life Gives You Grapes, Make Some Wine… Or Find Another Job

Try what you might like via co-ops, internships, volunteering etc. Before we invest too much time (though never a waste) it’s always good to get a sense of what it would be like to have your goal as a profession. You may even find yourself taking Oenology and viticulture as you consider becoming a sommelier and eagerly drop the course after the first hour of near death-by-boredom whilst thinking “why did I take this? I don’t even like wine!” But, hey! That’s one more job you know you don’t want!

7) One passion does not fit all

Let’s shift into reverse from the thinking that passion comes in one form or that one career is more worthy than another. You may be working as a clerk and love it! You may love the security, the close proximity to people, and maybe even the ease from having a boss to guide you. Following your passion doesn’t mean you have to go out and chase some wild and crazy dream (or perhaps it does), it means waking each morning to do something that fills you with a good feeling. It means enjoying what you do so that it doesn’t feel like work. No matter what it is, if it fulfills you, it is worthy of you.

6) Be Fearless With Your Fears

“I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail, than to attempt nothing and succeed.”

-Robert H. Schuller

There will always be challenges and obstacles. Some there to steer you on a better path, others there to challenge you, but in any case, keeping moving forward, success is often behind the second or third door. Never give up on a passion, but you may need to re-adjust it to make it work.

“Fortune sides with him who dares.”

– Virgil

~ To live will never be enough. We must feel A L I V E. We must have the energy to jump head first, the stamina to never stop running, the strong mentality to chase our passions, a body that is fit, healthy, strong, wise and loving. To live in the space of power, to know yourself as creator, to be in vibrant health is to set your world alive and nothing but this will ever be enough ~